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2003 Miami Grand Prix of the AmericasPhotos@VectorTrust.com |
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Downtown Miami heard the roar of the ChampCars, the American LeMans Prototypes
and the Trans-Am series cars again as the 2003 Grand Prix of the Americas returned for
the second consecutive year. The 2002 race weekend featured the first combination of
open wheel cars ( CART ChanpCars and Toyota Atlantic series) and the sports car racers
(American LeMans Series LMP’s GTS, GT’s and the IMSA Trans-AM cars.) together on
the same weekend as co-featured "main events". That was the story again for the 2003
Grand Prix of the Americas. This year, the race was back with a running head start at becoming a major event for both the CART ChampCars and the ALMS championships. The 2002 event saw rain disrupt the weekend, but the series organizers and the city fathers agreed, it was a successful event. All of south Florida welcomed the 2003 event’s return with a new track layout, greater organization, more fan-friendly events and a new plan to help sell tickets. Motorock is a new marketing organization you’ll be hearing more from in 2004. They plan to involve the whole community on race weekends, not just hard-core race fans, with activities and music concerts to surround the race weekend. Concerts by Elton John (Saturday night ) and Kid Rock ( Friday night ) brought in the crowds more interested in "the scene", than the on-track action. Motorock thinks the race fans will enjoys the activities and the concerts, while exposing music fans to the excitement of auto racing.... growing the fan-base for both. This Welcome page for the 2003 Miami Grand Prix of the Americas has random pictures from the race weekend. To view images from specific race series, Click these links to the ALMS and the Trans-Am series. A picture gallery of the CART ChampCar race is available too. Last year when auto racing returned to the streets of Miami, you could feel the excitement in the air. What a sight it was... to see the ChampCars and the ALMS grid blast down Biscayne Boulevard at speeds close to 200 miles per hour. The 2003 edition was more promising, with crowd attendance up. Before last years new event, Miami had not hosted racing since 1995. Once the home of some of the most successful CART street racing events, times had changed. In the late 90’s, CART started to fade in popularity when the IRL split brought the oval racers to Homestead Florida, just up the road. The enthusiasm for closing down the city streets for one week a year started to fade along with poor tickets sales, dooming the event. Local politics and court battles over the "rights" to operate the race weekend delayed it’s re-emergence. Hopefully those problems are behind the city, as both the 2002 and 2003 Grand Prix of Miami weekends show the potential of this being a great legacy race weekend again. The palm trees, the beautiful cruise ships in Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline make for a scenic canvas the city can use to paint an exciting picture to bring in race fans from all over the world. Most of Europe and the growing fan base in South America can get to Miami on direct flights. Both the CART ChampCar and ALMS series are populated with drivers and teams from somewhere other than the US and Canada. Motorock will add popular entertainment and concerts, the celebrities will swam and exciting race-week parties will make "the Blast by the Bay" Downtown Miami’s signature event once again. A strong south Florida combination CART ChampCar / ALMS series weekend will hopefully cross-polinate fans and help grow both race series too... making the ticket sales equation 1+1=3. |
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